RAT author jailed for 30 months, ordered to hand over $725k worth of Bitcoin
A US court has sentenced a programmer to 30 months in a federal prison in connection with software that claimed to be a legitimate tool for Windows sysadmins to remotely manage computers, but was actually used by criminals to backdoor PCs and secretly spy on victims.
21-year-old Colton Grubbs, of Stanford, Kentucky, admitted earlier this year that his software, LuminosityLink, was used for illegal surveillance and remote access of computers without the victims’ knowledge and consent, had actively marketed the software as a remote access trojan (RAT) to criminals, and provided support and assistance to his customers via sites such as HackForums.
Having bought the software, purchasers could either trick targets into installing the software (perhaps by sending them an enticing email with a malicious link), or – in the case of jealous spouses and business rivals – quickly plant it themselves if they gained temporary access to their intended victim’s PC.
Once in place, the LuminosityLink program allowed remote hackers to record victims’ keystrokes, spy via a users’ webcam and microphone, steal files and passwords, exploit compromised computers’ resources to mine for cryptocurrency or launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, and avoid detection by anti-virus software.
Law enforcement agencies became aware of crimes facilitated by LuminosityLink, and began to investigate – which ultimately led police to Grubbs.
Grubbs, however, realised that his apartment was likely to be searched. He hid a debit card associated with his Bitcoin account and phone containing his Bitcoin wallet information, took incriminating hard drives off the premises, and gave his laptop to a housemate, so that it could be concealed in the roommate’s car. In addition, Grubbs contacted a PayPal user collecting payments for LuminosityLink (he himself had been banned from the platform for selling malware) and told him to hide evidence.
These, it could (Read more...)
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from The State of Security authored by Graham Cluley. Read the original post at: https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/security-data-protection/rat-author-jailed-for-30-months-ordered-to-hand-over-725k-worth-of-bitcoin/
